Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the capacity of (a) energy suppliers and (b) the National Grid to provide power for the cooling systems for proposed new AI data centres.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department’s energy and emissions projections include growth in power demand from computing services such as data centres. However, to ensure a comprehensive view of the energy system, the methodology projects at a broader sector level, not disaggregating specific estimates for data centres.
The Capacity Market ensures supply meets demand. It operates by securing most of the required capacity four years in advance, with additional capacity secured one year ahead based on updated forecasts. This approach ensures Great Britain meets the Reliability Standard, which balances cost and reliability to maintain adequate electricity security.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the number of (a) data centres and (b) AI infrastructure on demand for electricity in the next ten years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government does not project demand by type of end use. Instead, it projects forward total electricity demand by sector, based on trends in past data and the observed past relationship with economic drivers, such as price and economic growth. We therefore do not have projections of electricity demand from data centres and AI infrastructure. This would however be picked up in the future through the statistical analysis if increases in consumption from these sources lead to significant deviation from past trends and relationships.